Busted
by Reilynn
Summary: What if Bling had butted into Logan,s love life in BBWW instead of Out? Max and Logan. Smooching.


**Disclaimer**: No infringement intended. Not affiliated in any way with anyone. Net worth is still a negative number. Nothing to sue here people, move along.

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**Busted.**

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**Divergence point.** In the televised series, it does not show who tells Logan that he has Max's blood in him, or what happened, but when he wakes up with Max there, he does already know. I am postulating that it wasn't Bling, because this is what I think would have happened if it had been Bling. In other words, what if it had been Bling to break it to him? 

A/N: This story begins with a groggy Logan Cale just coming out from under the anesthesia.

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**Wake up**

Logan woke up slowly. He was aware that he wasn't in his own bed, but it took some time to piece together the sounds. He noticed he was in a bright room. Bling was sitting there reading something. He could see the IV in his arm and hear the doctors being called over the intercom. Eventually he figured out that he was in the hospital, but he didn't recall coming here. He was supposed to have surgery …today?

Eventually Bling noticed that Logan had opened his eyes. "Hey," Bling said. Bling set his book down went to check Logan.

"Hey," Logan replied rather unsteadily.

"How are you feeling?" Bling asked.

"Tired. A little disoriented. I don't even remember coming here."

"Not surprising. You started bleeding internally sometime last night. I found you passed out at your desk this morning."

"Oh," said Logan. His mouth tasted like cotton and his stomach felt really terrible. Bling was expecting him to take something in, he just wasn't processing yet.

"Well, I guess I don't need to ask how that turned out."

"No, no. You do need to know. Logan, you were bleeding internally when you got here. You lost a lot of blood and are a very rare blood type. Dr. Carr told me you weren't going to make it."

"I suppose I feel pretty good considering then," Logan said. It took Logan a lot longer than it normally would have, but he did eventually notice that Bling was just staring at him. As if he had something to say, but didn't know how. "What?"

"You weren't going to make it. Max called your cell phone. She heard the PA, knew I was at a hospital. I told her you'd been having some trouble, and collapsed."

"You shouldn't have told her."

"You would be dead right now. She came back, transfused you with her own blood. That's the only reason you're still alive."

"Where is she?"

"The police took her down to the station..."

"No." Logan tries to sit up, but fails. He collapses back on the bed in a wave of nausea. "We have to get her out of there. Bling, where's my phone? …laptop?"

"Calm down. Zack turned himself in. Once the police got the real killer Detective Sung released all the women, made sure Max got out without Lydecker catching a glimpse of her."

Logan breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Damnit, why did she come back into the city?" Logan asked rhetorically, not really expecting an answer.

"She loves you," Bling stated firmly. He stared directly at Logan, well prepared for the argument he knew what sure to come from the most stubborn, tenacious, unshakable man he had ever know.

"We're not like that," Logan denied.

"Logan, she came back to the city for **you**. She set up the transfusion, without anyone here to monitor it and then passed out giving her blood to **you**. I don't care what you say Logan. For that matter, I don't care what she says. Hell, what are words anyhow?" When Logan didn't answer, Bling pressed on. "Logan, I don't know how you feel about her, but the fact that she was willing to lay down her life for you speaks louder than anything anyone could ever say. She loves you. She may not be able to say it. The way she must have grown up she may not even recognize it, but she obviously is human enough that she feels it."

"I'd just be a liability to her," Logan protested.

"You sure as hell demonstrated that today," Bling retorted. Logan started to object, but couldn't. Bling continued, "but that's not what this is about, is it?"

"She's a healthy young woman. She's going to want more than …I have."

"Maybe. Have you asked? For all you know …" Bling paused to verify that no one would over hear this. "For all we know, Manticore designed them without a sex drive. Why would soldiers need one? It would just get in the way, right? Heck, it could be that she sees you as a father figure. It could be you are just the only one she's ever had she felt like she could trust. I don't know and you don't know. The point is she risked her life for you; you owe it to her to risk your pride for her."

Logan was silent for some time before he finally said, "You're right."

Bling wasn't quite convinced Logan would seize the moment, so he chose his words carefully to light a fire under him. "One other thing for you to consider Logan; Max isn't always that healthy. Nobody knows what is going on inside her. And even if the seizures or some other side effect doesn't kill her, neither one of you lead safe lives. Any moment could be the last chance she'll have to be loved in this life, maybe the only chance. You owe her."

"And I always do the right thing, right?"

"Yeah, man, you do. She'll be in good hands," Bling encouraged.

* * *

Logan watched with amusement while Max ate his lunch. Hospital food, she was welcome to it. How she stomached it was beyond him, at least for the moment. He wasn't ready to talk to her just yet, so he just laid there with eyes open only a fraction. He couldn't help smiling at her, although that apparently only reinforced her impression that he was still pretty loopy. 

She took his hand when he reached out. He let his eyes drift shut and held her hand, just enjoying the moment. Max hummed Sibelius softly to Logan. They just sat there, smiling at each other, neither aware of it. Logan didn't know Max was smiling while she hummed; Max didn't know that Logan was aware it was her there and the smile was because of her. Eventually, Max had to go.

"I gotta go to work now, Logan. You're going to be OK. Don't let go, you promised!"

Logan's eyes snapped open and his grip on Max's hand tightened. "What?"

"I didn't realize you were awake," Max stammered.

"What did you say?"

"I gotta go to work now, Logan. You're going to be OK. Don't let go, you promised!" she repeated exactly.

"When?" Logan demanded.

"I wasn't serious...It was a dream I had," Max tried to explain.

"We danced to Sibelius," Logan ventured.

Max's eyes grew wide as she nodded.

"You asked me to dance …" Logan was assured now.

"You said 'I can't' …" Max was so uncertain, she'd never had anyone this close.

"You said I could, mind over matter …and I did. While you were transfusing me, we shared a dream." Logan looked at Max with such awe. Logan frowned as a thought crossed his mind. "Do you share dreams often?"

"I don't think so. I don't usually sleep. That was actually the only nice dream I've ever had. Usually, I'm back at Manticore."

Logan wrapped his arms around her. He sighed and decided Bling was right. Some things had waited far too long already. "You could have died, hooking yourself up like that and passing out. What were you thinking?"

"Dying would have been better than going back to Manticore."

"Which almost happened. Max …" Logan held her and looked into her eyes, brimming with such doubt. Logan Cale always did the right thing, at any and all costs, and now was no different. He took a deep breath, and went for broke. "Max, I know I've been …OK I don't know what you would call it, but I haven't behaved … as I should have. I'm sorry. Ever since the shooting … it's been hard for me to think of myself as a man. It didn't occur to me that … you might." Logan paused. Max's eyes were glistening and her brow was furrowed. She was waiting for him, far more than Logan would ever know. "I knew that there was a beating heart under all that armor …" Logan hesitantly placed his hand over her heart. "It never occurred to me that …you would give it to me. Max, there are some things you need to know about my …condition, but if you want what's left of me ..." Logan hesitated, unsure of what to make of the tears running down her face, but committed to this course.

Max couldn't stand to hear how little he thought of himself. With a soft sound between a sob and a mew, she threw herself into his arms. "Yes," she whispered into his ear. "Logan."

Logan wrapped his arms around her and began kissing her gently on the top of her head and stroking her hair. She turned her face into his. He trailed light kisses down her forehead, her nose, then gently touched her lips. He pulled back to look into her eyes, as if asking for her consent. She was lost long before she looked into his eyes. Green, yet as deep as the sea, she could so easily drown in their depths. She let out a soft sigh, closed her eyes, and again offered herself for Logan. Logan accepted; his mouth descended on hers. He held her to him with one hand entwined her hair the other pressing her body to him. Max moaned and opened her mouth to his invasion; he gratefully deepened the kiss. There was no desperation in this kiss. It was a beginning, not an end.

Max was drowning in Logan, losing herself completely, and she welcomed it. She'd heard people talk about a man completing a woman, but until this moment she foolishly thought it was a slightly veiled reference to the sexual act. It wasn't so. She was in Logan's arms; Logan was in her mouth; and she truly knew what completeness was. Suddenly she wasn't a soldier, lost girl with no family, a genetically engineered killing machine, or an escaped prototype. All complexities, all problems simply fell away until there was only Logan. In Logan's arms she was just a woman, nothing more and nothing less. She wasn't running from anything; she wasn't searching for anyone. She was complete, whole, satisfied. Logan … the prickliness of his unshaved face, the hardness of his chest, the ecstasy of his invasion … was everything. It didn't matter that she was flawed or that he was injured. Together they were part of an awesome whole that would overcome anything.

As if with being a woman came a woman's intuition, the certainty came to Max that she would sheath Logan more fully, know him in every sense of the word, and be his woman in the most basic way possible. She knew, too, that it wasn't possible right now; but the inevitability of it was undeniable. She wondered if it was irony that the one thing she was most certain of was the one thing she had no logical basis to believe. Perhaps she was just clinging to it because she wanted it more desperately than anything she had ever desired before.

Logan was completely overwhelmed. The soft scent of lavender; the warmth and softness of Max's body pressed so desperately against his; her gentle moans; the taste of her cherry lip gloss; the rich chocolate color of her hair; the knowledge that her blood flowing in his veins was the only reason he was still alive; all these sensations completely overwhelmed ever sense he had until there was nothing else. For once there were no restless spirits screaming for someone to avenge them. For once, no downtrodden pleaded for anyone to rescue them. There was only Max; supplicating for him, personally Logan Cale. He was a man of flesh and blood, not the mythic guardian Eyes Only. He didn't feel inadequate because he couldn't save everyone. He didn't feel lacking because of all those he could not help. He felt complete; he was enough. All doubts … about his injury, about being able to satisfy a healthy, strong, powerful, young woman, about being able to protect her, keep her, everything …fled at Max's touch. There where still obstacles they would have to over come, to be sure, but they would. Together, they can and will overcome anything, everything. Logan reveled in satisfaction that only a man holding the reason he was alive in his arms could know.

Neither Max nor Logan cared about anything at that moment, except the other. Not giving a damn about where they were …until they heard the curtain sliding. They both looked up to see Bling, grinning triumphantly, closing the curtain around them.

"Don't mind me," Bling said as he left.

"We probably should wait until I get home. But …Max, I want you to know; I love you." Logan just held her in his arms, gently caressing her. He was content just to hold her, and let the fact that someone loved her sink in. He hadn't really expected her to say anything back. What she had already given him … friendship, trust, life … was so much more than he expected to have again or, sometimes, felt that he really deserved.

Finally did answer softly, "I love you …too." All Logan could do was clasp her to him as she continued with a small self-conscious laugh. "What do you know, I can say it. I was afraid they may have spliced it out of me," she said softly, as if in wonder.

Logan could barely breathe as the implication hit him. "No. They may have tried, but they couldn't. I should have told you sooner, but I …didn't think ..."

Max had had more than enough of Logan's self depreciation. "That's right!" She silences further objections with a kiss.

Logan smiled, still not quite believing how lucky he was. "There are some things you need to know about my …condition."

"There are a few things you should know about my biology, too." Max suddenly looked very unhappy. "I wish I knew what they were."

"So I'm signing up for way more than the everyday ordinary run-of-the-mill 'for better or for worse'?" Logan said then smiled as he watched Max's face light with joy. "You're worth it, Max. You are so worth it."

"Logan!" Max didn't have words so she started kissing him again instead.

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Happy?


End file.
